The Management Consulting Group

Website traffic can pay for itself in a number of ways:

#GoogleAdSense”>Google
AdSense
#CPMBannerDisplay”>CPM Banner
Displays
#PTCBanners”>PTC Banners
#Sales”>Sales / New signups
/>

These are a few examples, there are certainly more unseen ways
traffic is paying for itself, including a better
search engine ranking, resulting in higher quality
website traffic!

Google AdSense

CPM Banner Displays

PTC Banners

Sales / New Signups

Sometimes you see promotions come along and you wonder - did
they just do that? The current MSN promotion - msnsearchandwin
is a prime example of this.

Not only do they use “black hat” or at least “questionable”
tactics on the site, but the messaging is inconsistent.

In this article I look at the new MSN promotion and ask the
question: Why bother?

By now you’ve probably heard about the new MSN promotion where
you can win prizes simply by using MSN search.

They did do something right by registering a domain name that
implies that message. If you go to HREF=http://www.msnsearchandwin.com/ rel="nofollow">http://www.msnsearchandwin.c
om/ you will see the familiar MSN search box.

Wait a minute…Why is this search box blue? Didn’t MSN just
rebrand with a nicer, cleaner silver grey look?

That, my friends, is mistake number one. It’s as if the
technical team and the marketing team didn’t get together to
discuss this program.

I mean, when you go through something as complex and massive as
a rebranding, you should make sure the messaging is consistent
across the various media. Especially when the promotion and the
rebranding launch within days of each other.

This is eerily similar to the article I wrote about Superbowl
Ads: HREF=http://www.textlinkbrokers.com/blogs/comments/329_0_1_0_C/ rel="nofollow">h
ttp://www.textlinkbrokers.com/blogs/comments/329_0_1_0_C/.
In that article I talked about how advertisers spend millions on
a 30 second or 1 minute TV commercial yet they fail to carry
that messaging over onto their website effectively if at all.

And here we have MSN - probably one of the most recognized
brands on the web and subsidiary to the company with one of the
most effective and ruthless marketing arms in the world - and it
can’t seem to communicate it’s message that MSN is rebranding.

I mean, how hard would it have been for someone in Tech to phone
up someone in Marketing and say, “By the way, you know that
search and win promotion you are doing? Be sure that the colors
match the new look of MSN that’s launching in a few days.”

But wait, it gets better.

First spotted by HREF=http://www.kerrydean.com/blog/ rel="nofollow">http://www.kerrydean.com/blog
/, if you view source of the msnsearchandwin home page what
do you see?

That’s right, about a million keywords stuffed into the keywords
tag. (OK maybe not a million but there are 256 keywords in the
meta keywords tag).

It gets worse. Immediately below the overstuffed keywords tag
you will see a bunch of keywords stuffed into a comments tag.
Again the same 256 words used in the meta keywords tag.

So tell me, is it OK for a search engine to spam itself?

Perhaps we could all learn a little something from MSN’s
marketing mistake: Keep it consistent!

The emotion of colors

Color by virtue of its tremendous expressive qualities is one of the most effective tools in advertisements and presentations. Web design is no exception in this regard. Psychologists have found out that color impression can account for 60% of the acceptance or rejection of that product or service.

Here’s a brief elucidation on varying dimensions of color.

There is a high degree of universality in the implicit meaning of color across cultures and geographies

Name something Green, people will refer to trees, name something blue, people will mean water. People generally associate colors with where each color is predominantly found, regardless of cultures and regions.

Here’s a description of the symbolic significance and potential uses of common colors.

Red

Symbolizes : Passion, fire, love, lust, war, violence, blood, and aggression

Potential Uses : Where the aim is to motivate an individual to initiate action, convey a warning, or stop the user.

When using different shades of red on a website, exercise caution Bright red can be quite irritating if used over large areas.

Pink

Symbolizes: Calming, cute, candy, soft romantic, and feminine

Potential Uses: When you want strike on a user’s caring or romantic side.

Orange

Symbolizes: Vibrancy and warmth. It is like a less passionate red.

Potential Uses: Recommended for food sites, nature sites.

Orange is good in moderation. Over-use should be avoided.

Yellow

Symbolizes: Sunshine, caution, happy, cheerful, warmth, hope, light, energy, weakness or illness, or symbolize cowardice.

Potential Uses: To make a webpage brighter and more spring-like.

Like red, it catches attention swiftly, but can be an irritant if over-used.

Green

Symbolizes: Spring, renewal, fertility, wealth, inexperience, health

Potential Uses: Excellent color option for websites about money and growing.

Blue

Symbolizes: Sky, sea, intelligence, reassurance, also depression and sadness.

Potential Uses: To give a website formal look and feel.

Purple

Symbolizes: Creativity, spiritual and mysterious.

Potential Uses: Best for spiritual sites, expressing romantic tenor

Black

Symbolizes: Power, elegance, and sophistication, death (Western context), evil, anger and sadness.

Potential Uses: Be on the safe side, never use over a wide area.

White

Symbolizes: Cleanliness, purity, and spirituality. It symbolizes life and marriage in Western cultures, but it is symptomatic of death in Eastern cultures.

Potential Uses: Great as an accent or background color because it makes other colors seem more vivid and bold

How to make color scheme work for you

Keep it simple . A color palette using three or fewer overall colors contributes to the clarity of a web page.

Use white space . White space does a balancing act for colors, lets the design breathe and makes a large site feel less complex.

Be consistent . Consistency in colors (i.e. links, menu items, instructions etc.) allows your audience to instinctively know where to look for information.

Know your audience. Before you set the ball rolling in design, you should be convinced enough what colors the audience would find compelling and right for your product.

Choose the right temperature of colors . The perception of your site is affected by your choice of warm or cool colors. Cool colors are water and sky colors like blue and purple; warm colors are red, orange and yellow. The temperature of a color affects how your message is likely to be perceived. SALE written in red will be perceived as more vibrant and urgent than soft purple text.

Let color contrast distinguish significant parts of your site.

Contrast between text and its background is essential for legibility. Dark text on a white background, for instance, is more legible than orange text on a red background. Different elements on your web page (i.e. the menu and body of the page) must contrast or they will begin blending together.

Color lesson: A well-considered color scheme can transform an okay website into a great web site

Color is one of the most important yet not-so-thoroughly understood elements of web design today. Whether web designers appreciate it or ignore it, visitors to a site respond to colors and other visual elements on the site on a psychological level, and will continue to do so.

Color affects the emotion of the audience, and emotion, in the process, drives decision-making. An intrigued visitor is more likely to be engaged in your site — whether it is meant to inform, entertain, or to sell products or services or ideas.

But if the colors are unsuitable, or outrageous, or not in line with the underlying symbolism, the visitors can outrightly reject the site–and the products as well–no matter how good they are. So, picking colors on your website carefully can transform your site, and of course, your business too

Deepak Sharma is a Web Designer at BlueApple, a Web Design and Development Company with a well connected development infrastructure in India having a strong offering superior web services and solutions at competitive costs.

While it seems pretty obvious that planning a web site is vital to its future development, I’m positive that a lot of web designers, programmers, etc. miss this step or don’t give it the importance it deserves.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO PLAN YOUR WEB SITE?

• Prevention is better than cure: There are few things more annoying than changing plans in the middle of a process. Of course you will always be exposed to mischances, but by planning ahead you will avoid potential problems that would require major modifications along the way.
• Faster development: When I worked as a web designer there were essentially two different types of clients: those who had a clear idea of what they wanted, and those who wanted “just to be on the Internet”. At first it could seem that the second type would be more permissive, making the development smoother. But on the contrary, those clients came up with a bunch of objections, additions, modifications… slowing down the process.

  If you have not a clear idea at first, you will only know exactly what you want when you see it. And trial-and-error isn’t a wise method for developing anything.

• Better performance: By aiming to an objective through all the steps of the web development process, the final result will be more consistent with your original idea. The efficiency of your web site to achieve your main goals will rely mainly on your initial planning.

HOW TO PLAN YOUR WEB SITE

• Determine your objectives:

  • Why are you developing the web site? If you don’t know the answer to this question, stop reading this and try to do something more productive.
  • Set your expectations, specific and realistic. Don’t try to be the next Google. Not even if you work at Microsoft. Specially if you work at Microsoft.
  • If possible, set also a way to measure those expectations so you can find out later your level of success. It can be a certain amount of visitors, sales…
• Define your target audience:

  • Who are you developing the site for? Your grandma and your aunt don’t count.
  • Analyze your potential visitors and what they are looking for. Focus on their needs, not yours.
  • Find a reason why they would choose your site from among the available alternatives. This is the Internet, there are millions of web sites. Depending on the niche there will be hundreds or thusands competing with yours… Does it really worth the effort?
• Research your competitors:

  • Identify and study the competition in your field. Basically competition is any site within your niche that you would like to make disappear (or even better, that you would like tu run).
  • Check web sites related to yours in any way and find their strengths and weaknesses. Why do you like them? Why do you dislike them? (besides they are the damn competition, of course).
  • Use that information so you can determine a way to beat your competitors. Can’t you find that way? Then you should go back to the target audience study.
• Outline your web site:

  • Think of the proper structure to make the relevant information easily accessible. Try to balance the information relevant for your visitors and the information you want to make relevant.
  • Determine how to merge different aspects of the development like content management, design, programming, usability, search engine optimization… and how to merge the people in charge of those areas (it uses to be way more difficult).
  • Try to make all scalable, so future additions or redesigns can be accomplished quickly and easily.

Original article published by Javier Garca: Basics: Planning your web site in Monetizing the Web
Read more articles on Web planning.

Many people believe that selecting a hosting service for their web site is a routine tasks and not that important. This is a big mistake as there are a number of very costly things that can and will go wrong if you are not aware of the important factors you need to take into account.

Answers to these important questions need to be found and fully understood before you can proceed with hosting your domain name in confidence.

This important activity is often seen as a routine technical / administrative task and insufficient attention is given to it. This is particularly the so with newbies who have little experience of the wider issues of internet marketing and the more technical aspects of the internet.

Selecting Your Hosting Service

All web sites need to be hosted (stored) on a server (special internet computer) in order to be accessible over the internet. There are many companies that offer hosting services for your web site.

It’s not a good idea to host your site with the same company that registers your domain name, as it can cause complications if you later wish to move your site to another hosting company. By keeping these two activities seperate, you will keep your options open and retain control of your business.

Tip:

Never use a company offering free domains as part of a cheap hosting package — it’s false economy and you will not be in control of your business!

There are many good hosting companies that will charge you about $7 a month and provide a good service. I can recommend using Hostgator, as their basic package provides all the essential functions you will initially need.

Tip:

It doesn’t pay to get free hosting or unrealistically cheap hosting. If your web site is a success, you will loose a lot of sales and profit whenever your server goes offline. Be wary of hosting plans that offer unlimited diskspace or bandwidth as something else has to suffer to make this viable.

Most hosting companies provide you with a control panel that enables you to perform a number of basic functions to manage your site. e.g. create, rename or delete folders and files (similar to files on your PC). You can also set up email accounts, databases and various other things as well.

The first thing you need to do is get some help in the form of step by step instructions and coaching videos designed specifically for newbies.

We can’t emphasize enough the importance of including keyword-rich content on your site to increase your ranking potential. Simply put, keywords are the words and/or word phrases people use when searching. As we’ve mentioned throughout the site, search engine spiders love content. Therefore, the more keyword-rich content you have, the better. When a search engine spider crawls your site, it won’t recognize pictures or images.

So, if you have limited amounts of text (or none at all) and you’ve got a lot of beautiful pictures or Flash animation, the spider may deem your site unworthy of listing.

What Is Keyword Density? Keyword density is the ratio of a keyword or key phrases to the total number of words on that page. It is one of the most critical aspects of successful search engine optimization. To improve your search engine ranking potential, your keyword density must be just right. To calculate your keyword density, divide the total number of words on your page by the number of times your primary keyword or key phrase appears. Keyword density is critical when outlining the keyword portion of your search engine optimization strategy.

Naturally, there is a fine line between strategically scattering these keywords throughout your content versus grouping them all together, separated by commas. The latter is known as spamming and you will get penalized for doing it. Don’t think you can fool the search engines — they have the technology to figure out these little tricks. Using Keyword Density To Improve Your Search Engine Ranking The best way to increase your search engine ranking potential is to develop your keyword strategy by researching the most relevant (and most searched for) keywords or keyword phrases before you even begin building your site. So, you’ve already built your site? No worries — you should still consider reviewing the keywords you have selected and make any necessary changes to your meta tags and site content. No matter how nice your site looks, you won’t get high search engine rankings without the right keywords. And remember, if your site has a lot of graphics or Flash animation with little content, we encourage you to consider a redesign. We understand that most site owners who fit into this category have spent a lot of money for these beautiful sites, but what is the purpose if they aren’t getting the high rankings?

That being said, here are a few tips on using keyword density to maximize your search engine ranking potential:

1. Use our Search Term Suggestion Tool (powered by Overture) to research your keywords. This powerful tool will direct you to the most popular keywords for your specific business based on how many times that keyword or keyword phrase is searched for each month. You can then take that information and develop your keyword strategy based on those results.

2. Incorporate these keywords or keyword phrases in your meta tags as well as your site content. People often forget that search engines will spider the heading meta tags first because they preceed and stand out from your main site content.

3. Write keyword-rich content that not only satisfies the search engine algorithms but is equally informative for customers visiting your site. This is the most difficult part of writing your content - but also the most critical.

4. Try to write at least 300 words for each page on your site. Again, the more content you have the better chance you will have to include those all-important keywords you diligently researched and ultimately selected.

5. Too often we see content saturated with too many keywords that, as popular as they may be, just don’t relate to the site itself. Avoid doing this - it will only irritate potential customers.

6. Web sites should be updated on a regular basis — don’t let them go stale. Add new products/services, update users with new information and tools, do what you can to change your content (keyword-rich content, that is!) and keep users coming back for more.

About The Author

As Submit Today’s copywriter and editor, Kristy Meghreblian has written online content for many successful companies, including Monster.com. She has successfully combined her excellence in journalism with the delicate art of keyword density as it relates to search engine optimization. As a result, she has helped many Submit Today clients achieve top ranking. Submit Today is a leading search engine optimization, submission and ranking company located in Naples, Florida.

kristy@submittoday.com

The Internet has had a huge impact on class reunion planning. High school reunion website builders have made it much easier to find classmates, and communicate all the important details regarding the high school reunion. Virtually anyone can create an incredible class reunion website with no technical skills at all. The user just fills in forms and clicks on buttons and their class reunion website is created instantly.

High school reunion organizers everywhere are reporting that having a class reunion website has had a dramatic effect on the attendance at the reunion. Seeing pictures and stories from the year of graduation creates a nostalgic mood that makes classmates look forward to the class reunion.

Some class reunion website builders have special features that help class reunion organizers collect people’s information, pictures, ticket payments as well as share event details, stories and more. The reunion organizer just fills in forms and clicks on buttons and their information is sent to one of many beautiful design templates. It is the best way to share all the event details, hotel information, and create a buzz that builds momentum right up to the high school reunion.

A Class reunion website allows the user to collect payments with a credit card right on the reunion website. The organizer can collect funds for tickets to the class reunion, memorabilia, or literally anything. This helps the planning process a lot because collecting everyone’s checks is usually an unpleasant task, and can be a stumbling block when trying to plan any reunion.

The organizer planning the class reunion is able to quickly and easily upload pictures on their class reunion website and create unique pages that suit their needs simply by filling in forms with their information. Some popular page titles include “flashback”, “teachers”, “news”, “committee” and “past reunions”. The “classmates” page allows the user to put a picture for each graduate today and from graduation. There are also great features that entertain classmates such as quizzes, polls, music, video, message boards, a guest book and much more.

The quiz page can test classmates’ knowledge of their high school history and the poll page is a great way to get a consensus on what everyone wants to do for various reunion activities. The class reunion organizer creates the questions and answers simply by filling information in forms and clicking submit on their high school reunion website. It is 100% dummy proof !

Putting all the details of events and map links on the class reunion website eliminates many phone calls to the organizer. The high school reunion website acts like a communications hub for the high school reunion. The organizer can send class reunion invitations by email with the planning tools and classmates can RSVP right on the class reunion website. This can save significant funds and make the job of planning the class reunion significantly easier.

The organizer can also post all the pictures and stories on the high school reunion website after the class reunion which allows friends who could not come to the school reunion to feel like they were part of the festivities ! So, if you are considering planning a class reunion, make your life easier and increase attendance by making a class reunion website.

Robert Hirscheimer is the President of http://www.myevent.com the #1 website builder on the Internet. Myevent.com allows anyone to create an incredible website with no skills for any event. There are special features for Wedding Websites, Class Reunion Websites, Family Reunion websites or a website for any event. The company also has a generic website builder where anyone can create a website for a business, foundation, association, corporate event or any other purpose. To create a website for a class reunion go to http://www.reunions.myevent.com and start a 7 day free trial with no credit card required. The cost is only $9.95 after the free trial.

When you started your business, perhaps you thought it was
enough to make your goods available to a few neighbors in the
community, with no thought of ever applying for a Web hosting
merchant account. Then you might have expanded the company’s
range by advertising in the newspaper or on the radio to get the
word out to those who did not drive by your company in a typical
day’s time. But now you’re poised to enter the electronic age as
your company moves into the e-commerce era. It’s time to put up
a company Website for all the world to see.

But you may lack the skills and perhaps even the funds to
design, set up, and maintain a professional Website via a Web
hosting merchant account. Perhaps you don’t even know where to
begin to find someone who can consult with you about what the
site should look like and how it should operate. You can’t begin
to understand how to process credit card payments or manage
other electronic functions to better serve your customers. But
rather than admit any of this, it may be you are sitting back,
resting on the old ways of doing business, and watching your
colleagues’ profits climb while yours hold even or occasionally
droop.

If this scenario describes your operation, maybe it’s time to
inquire about a Web hosting merchant account. A bank or another
financial services provider can explain the terms and conditions
of operating a merchant account. Once you find out if your
company is eligible to apply, you can look for the lowest rates
and best service before making application, taking care to avoid
various setup and maintenance fees that can be calculated in
addition to your monthly transaction costs. When your
application for a merchant card is accepted, you can get help in
locating a Website designer, one who will work with you to
represent your company the way you want it to be. Then you can
equip it with software that will let you accept customers’
credit card payments when they shop online so they can pay for
their purchases immediately rather than mail a check. Your
merchant services underwriter will arrange a gateway coordinator
to funnel customers’ credit payments directly into your
preferred checking account. All you will need to do is pay a
monthly rate for each credit card transaction or a low overall
percentage rate.

You can design a Website that will stand apart from the
competitors’ sites. It could feature product descriptions, price
lists, sale dates, FAQs, testimonials, and links to related
sites if that will support your company goals. The site should
be error-free, contain easy-to-read chunks of information, and
not be littered with so much information that the customer will
feel overwhelmed. You can arrange to add an email site in case
visitors have questions or problems, and you can let them pay by
credit card online, which is perhaps the most essential feature
of all. Ask your banker for details about a Web hosting merchant
account.

“The 9 WORST Internet Marketing Mistakes And How to Avoid Them
Like the Plague!” © Copyright 2003 by Talbert Williams -
www.leadsandtraffic.com

Have you ever wondered how can you possibly figure out how to
market your Internet business when you’re bombarded with so much
conflicting information? Lots of “how to” advice applies to many
online businesses.

But avoiding common marketing mistakes will work for EVERY
business. If you make even ONE of these mistakes, you’re leaving
money on the table:

Mistake #1: Believing, “You can make a fortune online while you
sleep.”

This mistake has a sidekick or two: “Make millions in just 2
hours a day!” or “Give us a month; never work another full day
again!” and “Make a living working less than 2 hours a day!”
These are tempting; they’re all dangerous.

But these promises aren’t the most amazing part - what’s
outrageous is the number of people who buy into them - with
their time, their money and their hearts.

Avoid Mistake #1: Ignore pie-in-the-sky promises - you’ll have
to spend serious time on a serious Internet business.

Mistake #2: Believing, “You can support yourself online with
just a small investment.”

This headline captures attention, but that’s all it does. Your
Internet business is just that - a business. Develop a budget
you can afford; don’t take a risk you cannot. Almost everyone
loses some money along the way to making their business
successful. Plan for that.

Avoid Mistake #2: Spend a realistic amount of money to grow your
business.

Mistake #3 “Get in on the opportunity you’re excited about FAST
- before it’s too late.”

For an Internet marketer, this is probably the worst piece of
advice. These pyramid-like “business opportunities” sound too
delicious to be true, and they are. It’s never “too late” to
begin with a solid business opportunity, and they are likely to
generate profits whenever you set up shop.

Avoid Mistake #3: Do your homework before you do anything else!

Mistake #4: Having no marketing plan.

With a little help, anyone can write one. Get started by making
lists: a daily task list, a weekly to-do list, monthly
benchmarks, and so on. Figure out what you need to do every day
to get the number of emails out, flyers distributed, ads placed,
press releases written, and articles published to achieve your
goals.

Avoid Mistake #4: Outline your battle plan and follow it to the
letter.

Mistake #5: Not getting enough visitors to click on your site.

I’m sure you’ve read story after story about people who make
mega-bucks on just a few hundred hits a day. Yes; it’s possible
you could break the records, too. But it’s quite unlikely you
ever will.

If you build your website, they will NOT come. You’ve got to
push them there.

Avoid Mistake #5: Use as many methods as you can to drive
traffic to your site.

Mistake #6: Sending out sales and recruiting emails all day long.

Some say marketing is a Numbers Game. Is it? Not exactly.

You can calculate the number of prospects you must have to get
the number of hits you need to get the number of click-throughs
necessary to end up with enough visitors who read your sales
message. From there, you can determine how many visitors you
need to convert one into a paying customer.

Everyone needs to know their conversion rate, but it’s not about
pushing tons of warm bodies to your site. It’s about getting the
RIGHT eyes to examine your offer.

Avoid Mistake #6: Get as many targeted leads as you can afford.

Mistake #7: Using weak headlines.

Weak headlines are deleted or ignored. If they’re going to
bother to read your copy, you’d better knock ‘em down flat to
get their attention first. Don’t spend more time writing sales
copy than on writing an attention-grabbing headline. If your
headline makes someone open your message or web page, you’re
well on your way to making a sale.

Avoid Mistake #7: Learn how to write irresistible headlines.

Mistake #8: Not building a personal prospect list.

The mere fact that someone came to your website, and maybe even
skimmed it, is a victory for you! Why let them click away? Make
your traffic generating investment worth it’s weight in gold.

If you wouldn’t dream of asking someone for their email address
because you just hate doing that, you’re trading principles for
profits. You probably have a WEALTH of information about your
niche that your visitor would gladly release their email address
to receive.

Avoid Mistake #8: Provide an opt-in mechanism on your site so
you can follow-up with every prospect.

Mistake #9: Once a prospect becomes a customer, they’re yours.
Wrong! People are fickle, they constantly search for greater
value, and they won’t be loyal to you - especially online. On
the Internet, it’s fast and easy to click onto the next guy’s
offer and then the next guy’s.

After all the time, energy and resources you’ve invested in
getting them to purchase from you, don’t ignore them after
making the sale.

Avoid Mistake #9: Don’t drop your paying customers from your
marketing plan.

Talbert Williams has been involved in Internet marketing for
almost 5 years. During that time, he was the #2 salesman for
Living Young Today. Generating over $741,183 in sales. (Yes, he
was #2, and he DOES try harder!) Talbert is currently running a
very successful online marketing service, Leads and Traffic.
He’s researched, tested and acquired countless marketing
resources. With the expert team he’s assembled, Talbert can
provide you with…

• Guaranteed targeted leads • State-of-the-art traffic
generation software

• Headline-building templates and techniques • Proven methods to
streamline your business; making every minute and dollar you
spend work it’s hardest for you • All the free training you’ll
need to use all of this, and more

In addition, Talbert and his team will teach you strategies and
techniques to organize and run your Internet business, from now
on and into the future - turning it into a money-making machine.
Plus, Talbert is personally available to assist all of his
clients.

Mistake-Proof YOUR business. Don’t take our word for it - Check
out www.leadsandtraffic.com, take a test drive, and prove to
yourself that it’s the best business-building investment you’ll
ever make.

© Copyright 2003 by Talbert Williams - Leads and Traffic. All
information, links, graphics, titles, words and phrases are
protected by copyright. Dissemination of this report is strictly
prohibited.

Success is a system, not a secret Leads and Traffic
www.leadsandtraffic.com

This simple question can take on several different forms, but if you have your own web site, all are equally important. Don’t worry, this isn’t a sales letter, and it’s well worth a read.

That opening question can mean “where is your web site hosted?”, or “where in the search engines is your web site?”, or it can mean “where in your marketing does it appear?”

Let’s take the first option. Do you actually know where your web site is held? To most people, it’s not really that important, as long as you receive the service you require. The problem comes when you don’t really know what’s available. Get your current web site provider to tell you exactly what you are getting, and how much you are paying for each component of it, and then compare it with other companies. This is a very competitive market and you need to know what you can get for your money.

The next question is vital. Do you know whether people are finding your web site from search engines, and what they are typing in to find it? There are many key phrases that the majority of people use to locate businesses or products and services. Some of these will be obvious, but others can be more obscure.

You can use little tricks to gain more visitors. For example, there may be a common mis-spelling that people use to find your site that you could take advantage of. Sometimes, you can achieve top results by implementing such terms into your web site content. Analyse your web site traffic, or ask your web site provider to show you a report on how your visitors find you, then work out an action plan to improve the results. The key to a successful web site is constant monitoring and ‘tweaking’.

Thirdly, where is your web site on your marketing material? For most businesses it should be on your business cards, letterheads and stationery. It should also be included in any advertising you undertake. If you have an answering machine, tell your callers about your web site and its’ address on your greeting so they can view it whilst they await your return call. Create a signature for every outgoing email message that you and your company send out, with a link to your web site. Also, ensure that everyone in your organisation knows what your web site address is.

Use your web site as a marketing tool when talking to clients and prospects over the phone. Ask them to look at it while you speak and direct them to relevant areas instead of posting out brochures. With a more visual and immediate response as this, you could gain more customers. Why not place small window stickers in your vehicle windows? Think about how many people you pass during your average journey to the office. If you have remote staff or field staff, think about how many people will see their vehicle during a day. With today’s traffic, most drivers have plenty of time to write down the address!

So, where is YOUR web site?

About The Author

Brendon Mills operates the web design firm LemonEye Ltd in the UK (http://www.lemoneye.com). His designs are unique and well thought out. And his promotion strategies get results.